Reel-type gang mowers have long been known in the art, and are most often identified with golf courses and other wide open areas requiring an attractive contoured cut. Gang mowers are often recognized for their ability to mow a given area in a significantly shorter amount of time than that possible with conventional power mowers. This is due in part to the relatively large switch (8 feet or more) possible with gang mowers, whereas power mowers typically cut a swath of four feet or less with each pass. Gang mowers can also usually be pulled faster than a comparable power mower without sacrificing on the quality of the cut. Therefore, not only are gang mowers well known for there ability to make an attractive contoured cut, they are also known to be significantly faster than the largest counterpart power mowers, provided one has a tractor with sufficient power to pull the gang mower.
Most prior art gang mowers are relatively heavy and normally require a relatively powerful tractor to pull the gang mower. In other words, home garden tractors have typically not been sufficiently powerful to pull most commercially available gang mowers. Thus, most if not all homeowners with relatively large estates (several acres or more) must choose between one of a variety of home garden tractors with power mower attachments for use in mowing their large lawns. These tractor power mowers typically have a rotating blade on the order of three feet in diameter but rarely, if ever, exceeding four feet in diameter. This is because larger decks, 40 inches or larger, will often scalp the ground on one side while being too far off the ground on the other when the mower encounters even moderate contouring. Thus, the homeowner that desires an attractive cut must necessarily choose a smaller sized deck and spend multiple hours each week riding his or her lawn mower back and forth around their yard. Reel-type gang mowers have not been a realistic alternative to these homeowners because the gang mowers of the prior art typically require a large storage area, and relatively larger tractors, which are prohibitively expensive and also require their own added storage space.
One of the reasons that gang mowers of the prior art are relatively heavy is because the individual mower units are typically attached to the gang mower frame in a way that requires a relatively large downward force in order to maintain the individual mower units in proper contact with the ground at all times. In particular, prior art gang mower frames are typically attached above and forward from the individual mower units, with the consequence being that the frames (and mower units) must be relatively heavy in order to maintain both the drive wheels and the trailing rollers of the individual mower units in contact with the ground. Examples of such gang mowers include but are not limited to the gang mowers shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,663,900 to Braun, U.S. Pat. No. 1,902,928 to Worthington and U.S. Pat. No. 2,830,421 to Blue et al.
A more recent gang mower assembly illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,706 to Tobin Jr., overcomes some of the weight problems of the prior art to produce a gang mower suitable for use with home garden tractors. Tobin Jr. accomplishes this by making a gang mower frame that attaches to the handle studs of the individual reel-type mower units. Thus, in theory the frame pushes forward and downward on the handle studs of the individual mower units when the frame is pulled forward by a garden tractor. In other words, the individual mowers units are pushed forward when the frame is pulled. While this concept apparently permitted a lower weight frame suitable for use with garden tractors, a number of problems have persisted in the Tobin Jr. gang mower design. Not the least of which is the recognition by Tobin that a spring is often required in order to apply a moment about the handle studs of the mower units in order to help maintain the rollers of the individual mowers on the ground at all times. It is well known that it is absolutely critical for the proper functioning of a reel-type mower that both the drive wheels and the trailing roller always remain in contact with the ground. Tobin Jr., also suffers from a number of other problems that have persisted in the art, including the inability to back up when the gang mower is attached to a tractor, the inability to store the gang mower in a relatively small space, the inability of the gang mower to properly follow lawn contours, and other problems.
In view of the prior art, what is needed is a reel-type gang mower that is low weight, capable of being stored in a relatively small space, is suitable for use with home garden tractors and overcomes many of the practicality problems encountered with the various gang mowers of the prior art.